MICHELLE
It’s back to pitch black. No sights. No light. No bit of hope for any of the three of us down here. Outside, I can hear the men screaming at one another, each of them shouting louder than the next. There are a couple more shots of the gun, each one of them sending shivers down my spine and shaking me to my core. I cover my head with my hands, trying to drown out the noise with my sweaty palm, but they still come, unpredictable and chaotic.
And then there’s Maddie. She’s hysterical now, crying out for her dad as if her saying it loud enough will make it come true. Her sobs are heavy and full of tears I can practically hear as they fall down her face in the dark.
She still hasn’t moved from the spot they dropped her at as far as I can tell. But I can’t seem to make myself to find her. I am too afraid that if any of us make a sudden movement, the men upstairs will hear us and have reason to put us next on their hit list. Though, realistically, I already know we are.
I can hear a man standing above where I am sitting. It’s the same man from before, the one who walked in on Maddie taking that phone call. His voice echoes off of the plank and through the broken pipes loud enough so it even catches Maddie’s attention. “What the fuck do you mean they’re at the clubhouse? Who is there? Who is guarding it?”
I sit up straighter as he goes on raging. “If those fuckers think they can mess with us in our own turf, they have another thing coming from them.” He pauses as he plots his counterattack. “Tell the boys at the house to hold it down until I can get ahold of some reinforcements. Send Pedro and Tom-Tom their way to flank them in the alleyway. Then call in Yazoo and his boys to take care of them from the back. They’ll never know what is coming for them!”
He laughs long and hard, the floor shaking as he beats his foot into the ground. The idea of laughing over a war is beyond me, let alone gleefully sending in troops of friends and family to do the dirty work. But the man above me isn’t just a regular guy; he isn’t even like Cal. The invitation of death is like a calling for him, and I can tell how eager he is to get out there and join them just from the dripping tone of his voice. But he’s disappointed. He’s got to pull rank here to guard over us. After that phone call, I doubt he can trust any of his men to obey his orders completely, especially when it comes to an innocent little girl like Maddie.
I, on the other hand, should be excited, even thrilled. The attackers going after the clubhouse with such force have to be Cal and the Mustangs. But my heart is sitting at the bottom of my stomach as I think of the men dying for absolutely nothing. They’re at the wrong place, probably at least five miles away from us! While they are attacking the empty clubhouse, we’re probably closer to death than ever. And what will happen when Cal finds he comes up empty handed? I shake my head, trying to erase the thoughts of him seeing us lifeless and long cold.
“Michelle? Miss Springer?” Maddie is whispering low. I turn my attention back to her and crawl slowly towards her voice. “Where are you? I can’t see you.”
I shh her, like the practiced teacher I am. She can’t be heard right now. It’s more dangerous than ever for us to get any bit of attention. I quickly find my way through the dark to where she is laying, her head facing the ceiling and her arms clasped tightly around her waist. I sit up next to her, finding a support beam to rest my back on. I grab her arms and lay her head on my lap as I say, “We can’t talk loudly down here. If we can hear them, they can hear us. And we don’t want to make any noise. Do you understand me?”
She nods her head yes and rolls towards my stomach, talking as low as possible in my shirt so even I have to bend lower to hear her. “Did you hear what that guy said? He said someone was attacking the clubhouse. Do you think it’s my dad?”
I hesitate. Should I tell her her dad is headed towards a horrific death and that he’s not anywhere near us or should I save her hopes? I go with the best answer I can muster. “I don’t know for sure, Maddie. But whoever is attacking the clubhouse is making them very nervous and mad.”
A flicker of light from the window dances near us as I get a quick sparkle of her tear filled eyes. “It has to be them. The Mustangs wouldn’t just leave me here. Right?”
“I am sure your dad is doing whatever he can to get you and Erin out of here as fast as possible.” My voice cracks as I try to get the last words out, “We just have to be patient.”
Maddie scoffs, “Patient? My dad would never be patient. We should be attacking them…you know, kicking them in the butt and stealing their guns and stuff. My dad wouldn’t let them do any of the shit – oh, um, sorry, crap – that they’re doing to us.”
I try to hold back a little laugh. But she’s right in theory. With Cal miles away from us and distracted by the war he just started, it’s up to us to save ourselves. No more damsels in distress. I think back to what I saw the moment the men dropped Maddie back down in the basement. There was a glitter, a glimmer, something shiny that caught my eye. My hands run through her hair, almost immediately finding it.
I yank the hairpin out, her curls going flying. She lets out a small yelp as her hands shoot to the knots I accidentally pulled. “What are you doing, Michelle? That’s my hair!”
I hold my hands over her mouth. This little object is our biggest weapon, and if we were going to use it, we were going to need the art of surprise on our side. No giveaway, nothing. I find Maddie’s hands in the dark and hold them up towards my face. I place the hairpin in and begin rocking it back and forth, twisting it side to side, just as I had seen in all those movies. Nothing. No clicks, no movement, no loosening.
Maddie pulls her hands away and sits up next to me. She takes the pin out of my hand and I can practically make out the corners of her lips shooting up into a smile. “Miss Springer!” I shh her again as she excitedly whispers into my ear, “You’re amazing! Red Dog taught me how to pick locks when I was three years old! I can do this.”
I’m frozen as she takes the pin and places it into her own lock. She fidgets around with it, even placing the cold metal to her ears. Her eyes squint as she concentrates on finding just the right spot…and click. The cuffs fall to her lap as both of us look at one another, dumbstruck by how easily it worked. She pauses before wrapping her arms around me tightly, pulling me into one of the most important hugs of my life.
After a few beats, she lets go of me and places the pin in my lock. But I shake her off. “Not me. Not yet, at least. We need to get Erin out of her ASAP, and we can’t do that easily if we don’t have her cuffs off. Can you do hers, too?”
Maddie nods as she crawls to where Erin still lies still, just feet from us. I take her discarded cuffs with me just in case we need them and then follow her stealthy moves. This time, she talks me through her lock picking. “Red Dog always said to start by using the big part of the lock to bend the pin back, then take zigzag part of the pin and bend it in half there so the zigzag faces the inside. Like a real key! Then you just need to figure out how to line the zigzag part up with the pins and stuff inside…” She looks down at Erin’s wrists as she twists and turns it repeatedly. “...and then it comes off!”
Maddie holds Erin’s cuffs above her head, high enough for me to see them. I grab them out of her hand and place them back on Erin’s wrists, being careful not to click them into place. I give Maddie hers back as well and explain that she has to keep them on her in case a guard came down. “They can’t know about this, or we are in big trouble. Just keep one of them on like a bracelet.”
She nods as she holds on tight to her pair. She then sits down across from me and pulls my arms towards her. “Your turn!” she says almost brimming with excitement.
But I stop her. Something has changed. The man upstairs is yelling again. This time, he isn’t as joyful as the last time we could make him out. “So what you’re fucking saying to me is that the Mustangs managed to not only attack the clubhouse but also the warehouse? Who the fuck let this happen? Where are Yazoo and his guys? What do you mean they’re at the clubhouse? Who the hell is guarding the warehouse?” He pauses, listening to answers we cannot hear. “Well then you better have a damn good plan, because if even an ounce of product gets messed with, I am going to kill each and every one of you peon amateurs! Do you hear me?”
Another man enters, his voice much more subdued than the other. I stand up a bit, ducking to avoid hitting my head, “Addison, what would you like us to do, then? Should we stay here or help the guys at the warehouse?”
Addison, their apparent leader, screams right back at the man, “You’re going to go down there and see that those pussies get their fill of lead today. But before you go, we’re going to take care of the cargo here. Go get the nearly dead one first. She’s nothing to Cal or the rest of the Mustangs. She’s going first. We’ll send them pictures of her head.”
My heart jumps as I hear footsteps approaching. I hurriedly say to Maddie, “Don’t make a sound. No matter what happens. Don’t take those cuffs off, and don’t make a sound.” I stutter for a second before I grab her messy hair and head in my hands and pull her in for a quick kiss on the forehead. “I love you, Maddie. Erin and I love you. Your dad loves you. And you’re going to be fine. We’re going to get you out of here.”
The door opens as Maddie and I both quickly shuffle away from the bottom of the stairwell and out of sight of the man walking slowly down the stairs. He pulls out a flashlight and points it down at the ground. He spots it on Maddie first as she is lying in a heap on the ground, pointed away from him. He then finds me up against the same wall I was before, my head resting upon my knees as I pull myself tightly in. Then, he finds Erin and he makes his move.
He kneels down to examine her, taking her pulse and brushing the hair from her eyes. He then drapes Erin’s body over his shoulders, as if they were partners doing a ballroom dance. The man turns back to face Maddie and I, his light flashing back and forth at where we lay. As he and Erin’s body goes to turn to take the first step, there’s a clink as something metal falls to the floor.
I look on in horror as I see Erin’s handcuffs drop at his feet and his eyes dart up towards where I am sitting, stunned and more fearful than ever. We’ve been exposed.